Only days after his December 1st announcement that a second surge of 30,000 troops would be sent to Afghanistan, US President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. According to Obama, “Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than [...]

SP Newsletter No.296
Recent opinion polls have shown that support for an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) remains at just over 70%, despite 70% of respondents admitting they “don’t know enough” about Rudd’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
This coincides with 76% of Australians being ‘concerned’ about climate change, with over half the population seeing it as a [...]

On Wednesday December 23 asylum-seeker George Jacob Samuel Christin died. Christin was one of the 254 Tamil asylum-seekers facing horrific conditions in the Indonesian port of Merak. A spokesman for the asylum seekers said Christin was showing signs of severe illness, but was “neglected by the IOM (International Organisation for Migration) and the Indonesian navy”. [...]

In recent years most states in Australia have introduced new ‘anti-graffiti’ laws. Western Australia followed suit on January 1 with state wide legislation that threatens graffiti artists with up to two years jail or fines of $24,000.
Retailers in WA will also risk fines of $6,000 for selling spray cans or markers to people under the [...]

SP Newsletter No.295
With the worst economic crisis in 80 years rocking the world many workers and young people are starting to question the capitalist system. Capitalism, which dominates the globe, is a system that allows a tiny minority of bosses to own and control the vast amounts of wealth that is produced by billions of [...]

Bankers to pocket $100 billion in bonuses, while impoverished Haitians struggle to cope with disaster
The humanitarian catastrophe that has befallen Haiti beggars belief. The powerful earthquake that struck on 12 January left many thousands dead, with estimates running to 200,000 and more. The flimsy slum dwellings in Port-au-Prince, the capital, collapsed, as did public buildings, [...]

SP Newsletter No.294
When clothing manufacturer Pacific Brands announced in February last year that it would be moving offshore and sacking 1850 workers, people were clearly angry. But when it came out soon after that Pacific Brands chief executive Sue Morphet would have her pay increased from $685,775 to $1.8 million that anger turned into outrage. [...]

For more than 25 years the Tote Hotel in Collingwood has been at the centre of Melbourne’s live music scene. The venue has helped launch some of Australia’s best known bands and played host to a long list of international acts. The pictures and posters that adorn the walls of the bar and band room [...]

SP Newsletter No.293
The Rudd Government, who boast about their concern for human rights, have ignored the plight of over 250 Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking refugees held in a small boat near Merak, Indonesia.

Socialist MEP condemns Rudd
Tamil refugees moored at the port in Merak contacted Socialist Party officials this morning with the tragic news that a young man died last night at about 11.30pm local time.
By Socialist Party reporters
Jacob Christin, aged 29, had been trying to go to hospital for the last two days but the IOM [...]